Demons Of The Unsung War
by Aussie Raven
Summary: Alex Williams, a new inductee to the OADF. The Circum-Pacific War, a major conflict between Osea and Yuktobania. Alex and the Wardog Squadron are forced into the war on the front lines. Here will be their proving ground. Here will be where they cross the lines from rookies, to pilots, to legends, and to demons. Prologue to The Demons Return.
1. Prologue, Part 1: Alex Williams

A series of grey buses travelled through a snow-covered forest road. In them were many groups of young men and women wearing two-piece green working uniforms, the flag of the Osean Federation embroidered on the shoulder of all of them. Pilots. Trainees. At the absolute back seats, one of the pilots was writing in a small notebook. His hair was cut short, a dark brown colour, a tanned complexity, and dull green eyes. He was Casucasain.

_10th July, 2009_

_We're being shipped off to Heierlark Air Force Base today after completing the theory end of our training. It's been a long-ass drive via bus to get there, but I can't say I'm not excited. We're getting pretty close to completing training, and now we're at the fun end of things. Everyone in general is pretty happy about it. I've been assigned to Delta Squadron for the rest of training because most of my squad dropped out. Would be nice to see some new faces. We're almost there. The end of it all. _

_-Alex_

Alex Williams closed his book and looked out the window. Outside, the forest had cleared to reveal an F-4G roaring overhead as it took off. The sound and energy rocked the bus some, causing commotion from the people in Alex's bus. Alex himself shouted as it passed overhead. At the front, one of Delta Squadron's staff members chuckled.

'Welcome to Heierlark, recruits!'

The buses went around roundabouts and through a security checkpoint before finally stopping at the foreyard. Alex's bus was the fourth in the line. The staff members of the squad stood up and went to the front of the bus.

'Recruits, file out and form up at the far right corner of the undercover area!' The most senior of them said to everyone on the bus. 'Let's go!'

Alex stood up and picked up his kitbag from the floor. In comparison to everyone else he didn't bring much with him. As everyone filed out, Alex bumped into one of the male recruits by accident. One of the bigger ones.

'Shit, my bad.' Alex apologised, looking up at the guy. While not particularly tall for a person, for a pilot he was very big at just over six foot. The guy looked down at Alex's five foot ten.

'No worries man.' He replied in a casual tone. Alex recognised him from earlier in training. 'Hang on, were you that guy who I almost drowned in the swim test?'

Alex smiled. 'With your heavy ass? Yeah, Williams.'

'I think Alex is easier. But aren't you meant to be in Bravo Squadron?' He said to Alex as they shuffled down the passageway of the bus. It was slow-going because of the amount of people onboard.

'Everyone dropped, remember?' Alex was still looking at the guy he was talking to when he walked into someone by accident, again. This time it was one of the female pilots with short black hair, who looked back in mild surprise. Alex looked forward.

'Sorry.' He said. The woman nodded at the man Alex had been talking to.

'You should stop pushing people, Alvin.' She said to him. The latter threw his hands up in mock defense.

'Hey, I didn't push anyone this time.'

'Riiiight.' She was skeptical. Alex didn't say anything between the two, instead focusing on not running into a third person before getting off the bus. He succeeded in this objective and quickly found himself in formation with Delta Squadron, a group of around 25 people. They were very quickly met by a man with big chevrons in formal uniform. Brigader-General Jarred Baxter, he introduced himself as, and he was the base commander at Heierlark. The general made a speech that Alex didn't listen to most of. It was something about congratulations for making it to Phase II of training, general expectations on base and directions to rooms and other important facilities. They were dismissed quickly for the squad leader to direct Delta to their rooms so they could set up and get a feel for the place. Soon after entering, he heard his name being called.

'...Alvin Davenport, Kei Nagase, Alex Williams, Emily Jones, you are in Room 19 at the back of that hallway,' The man saying this pointed a hand down a hallway in front of Delta Squad. 'To the right.' Alex didn't have to be told twice, bringing himself and his bag down that hallway to the respective room. _Room 19_. He found it quickly because the man he had talked to on the bus was waiting in front of the door.

'You know Alvin, the keys _are _hanging off the handle.' Alex pointed that out to the man so they could actually get in. Alvin looked in surprise, grabbed them and unlocked the door. In the room were two double bunk beds built into the wall with some desks, chairs and other utility items in the middle. A window gave the room occupants a view onto the runway. Alvin went in, followed by Alex and then the two females they had.

'I claim the top bunk!' Alvin shouted on spotting the bunks, throwing his bag onto one and climbing up to it. Alex chuckled as he came in, moving off to one side to allow the others to get in. The first was the black-haired lady from before, the second was a familiar face to Alex. Emily was from the same squadron as Alex, and had also managed to get assigned to Delta. Her curly blonde hair was tied into a ponytail. She half-pointed towards the bottom bunk of the bed that Alvin had taken, and placed her stuff on it.

'Uh, Alex?' The black-haired pilot said while tapping Alex on the shoulder. He turned around.

'That's me.'

'Do you want the top bunk?'

'Do you?' Alex looked at her, then the empty bunks, then at her again.

'Flip a coin?' She suggested. Alex nodded and reached into his bag for a coin. After a few seconds of searching, he found one.

'I'm heads.' Alex threw the coin up with a spin and caught it when it fell. Tails.

'Top bunk's mine.' She threw her bag up. Alex shook his head while chuckling softly and placed his own kit on the bottom. He sat down and stretched his legs. No-one spoke for about a minute.

'So,' Alvin quickly broke the silence. 'What aircraft did you guys sign up to fly for?'

'Flanker.' Alex.

'Su-27.' Black-haired lady.

'A-10s.' Emily.

'You two are boring, you know that?' Alvin looked at the two people on the opposite bunk. 'The F-14, on the other hand-'

'I think you've been watching too many movies. The F-14 is old and going out of service in a few years.' Alex deftly deflected Alvin's statement.

'It was the workhorse of the Navy, and dare I say it still is.' Emily.

'Yeah, but now we've got the Super Hornets replacing them.' Black-haired lady again.

'I don't believe I caught your name, miss…?' Emily asked about the black-haired lady's name. She hadn't heard it from the callout before.

'Oh. Kei Nagase.' Kei introduced herself to Emily and indirectly to Alex. 'You?'

'Emily Jones. Alex Williams is there below you.' Kei looked down.

'Howdy.' Alex said. The four talked for ten minutes about random topics, ranging from family, prior experiences and experience at training to future prospects in the Air Force. This was interrupted when an officer appeared in the room.

'Recruits, there's a training brief in the hangar, follow me please.' The officer said. He was a pilot from the looks of it based on his uniform and unit patches. The four followed him into the hallway where there was the rest of Delta Squad following in a column. The squad followed through the base, passing by several working personnel and going through various hallways, outside footpaths in the freezing evening air. They found their destination in a big room with lockers, benches to sit on and loudspeakers in the four corners.

'There are names on the lockers. Find your locker and stand by it.' The officer flatly ordered. All 30 people quickly navigated to their respective lockers and stood at attention. 'Open the lockers.' Everyone opened their lockers. There was a collective gasp. Alex spotted the distinctive shape of a helmet. On the rack below the helmet was a uniform supported by a coat hanger. A vest was placed next to the uniform. This was pilot gear. Alex raised an eyebrow and smiled. The officer cracked a grin.

'Put your gear on. First five to get strapped are the first five to get in the air!' The officer ordered. Alex pulled his stuff out and sat down to get it all on. The recruits had been taught during Phase I of training how to put it all on. Alex was the first to get his gear on.

'Recruit Williams, what aircraft did you sign for?' The officer was suddenly in front of him.

'Su-27 Flanker, sir!' Alex replied.

'First aircraft to the left, you're with Captain Svenson, go!' The moment the officer said go and pointed to the door leading to the hangar, Alex was running out the door and into the hangar. This was one of the bigger hangars on the base, big enough to store a C-5 safely inside. There were a mixed variety of aircraft. F-14s, 15s, 16s, 18s, Su-27s, there was one or two of every mainstream fighter operated by the OADF in the hangar. Next to each aircraft - they were all the two-seater variant - was a pilot in their own gear.

'Recruit, who's your assigned co-pilot?' One of the senior officers called out to him. The man had a scar running from the cheekbone, over his lips and ending at the base of the chin.

'Captain Svenson, sir!' Alex called out, slowing to a jog to not run into the tailend of the Su-30.

'You're with me then, get in the pilot seat.' Svenson was the pilot with the scarred face. He slipped on his helmet. It was the same type as Alex's, but in addition to the grey surface Svenson's had a wizard on the side of it. Alex slipped his own helmet on and climbed up into the cockpit. Svenson wasn't too far behind. Once he was in and strapped in, the captain activated the APU and radio.

'You hear me Williams?'

'Yes sir.'

'Good. Welcome to the office of a pilot and by extension the working end of the Air Force. Now, the Su-30 has the same control scheme and startup process as an Su-27, so go ahead and kick the engine into gear.' Svenson ordered. Alex complied and started the dual turbofans. There was a vibration followed by a low whine noise that got louder as the engines spooled up. 'I've got the canopy.' Svenson shut the canopy to shut out much of the outside noise. In the process of doing this he dropped something and cursed. Alex looked behind him. The captain had dropped a clipboard.

'Sir, would a kneepad not be more effective?' He asked.

'Not big enough. Besides, I can clip it on the dash.' Svenson did that and flipped through a few pages. 'Hmm. Extensive burns to your forearms?'

'Got caught in a forest blaze when I was a kid. I still have full sensitivity in my hands if that's of any concern.' Alex explained.

'Well, recruit, call our departure in. Your callsign is Blaze 1.'

'Cheeky bastard.' Alex muttered under his breath. 'Tower, this is Blaze 1, requesting takeoff permission from Runway 2-2 right.'

'_Blaze 1, tower, permission granted, clear to taxi to 2-2 right._'

'Take us away.'

Controlled by Alex, the Su-30 rolled out of the runway as other Delta Squadron recruits burst out into the hangar. He brought the two-seater fighter to the runway and shot off the runway with afterburners lit. Once Alex brought the aircraft off the tarmac, he inhaled. He had flown countless times in the simulator back at Phase I school. That said, this was the first time he had flown his own aircraft in real life. That realisation was mildly offputting but Alex suppressed the thought and kept flying forward, away from the runway. Below them was all snow.


	2. A General Update

Howdy all. Just a general status update on _Demons of the Unsung War. _

It is extremely unlikely that this story will be getting an update before I complete _The Demons Return_ (which I anticipate to finish some time at the end of 2020).

However, _this does not mean I will not update Demons of the Unsung War ever. _I have every intention of finishing it, but maintaining a balance between two long stories is not something I'm particularly good at.

I hope you all understand.

-Raven.


End file.
